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QUEENS WEEKLY, DECEMBER 8, 2019
Six Queens Borough President candidates attend a forum in Forest Hills. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
Borough President candidates promise
to increase community board diversity
BY MAX PARROTT
The six declared candidates
for Queens borough
president may have
very different objectives
for the office, but according
to a recent candidates
forum, they all have one
thing in common: they
would deviate from current
Borough President
Melinda Katz.
At the candidate forum
on Saturday, Nov.
23, hosted by the Queens
Coordination Council
and Queens Community
House in Forest Hills,
the six candidates each
took the opportunity to
explain how their vision
for the office would go
further than that of the
district attorney-elect.
When asked for one
thing that Borough President
Katz has done that they
agree with, and one thing
that they disagree with,
candidates did not hold
back in their criticism.
One consistent opinion
in almost all the answers
was that Katz did not do
enough to make sure that
community boards are diverse
enough to represent
the borough.
The six candidates
who have so far filed
to run include former
Councilwoman Elizabeth
Crowley, City Councilmen
Donovan Richards,
Jimmy Van Bramer and
Costa Constantinides,
Assemblywoman Alicia
Hyndman and retired
President of the Latino
Officers Association Anthony
Miranda.
The candidates are
competing in a special
election to take over the
rest of Katz’s term ending
in at the close of 2021.
The role of borough
president involves a number
of advisory functions
on land use and the municipal
budget process in
the form of the disbursement
of millions of dollars
per year from the
city’s annual discretionary
capital budget to organizations
and projects
in the borough.
It also has an important
role in the appointment
of community board
members.
At the beginning of
the year, the office encourages
constituents to
apply for open spots and
then advises each council
member in finalizing all
appointments.
These efforts are designed
to create a pool of
candidates that reflect diversity
in the borough.
Richards started by
praising Katz for collaborating
with other elected
officials in order to make
sure that her budget complemented
their projects.
But he said that the
borough president needs
to enact term limits to
ensure there’s more turnover
in community board
positions, and increase
diversity.
“I think she could have
looked at those numbers
to make sure that community
boards have public
housing members on
them,” said Richards.
Crowley talked about
being more bold than
Katz on transportation,
using the question as an
opportunity to plug her
idea for resuscitating
the QNS line, an 8.5-mile
stretch of railway which
connects Jamaica Station
to Court Street Station.
As the only elected official
who endorsed decarceral
district attorney
candidate Tiffany Cabán,
Van Bramer emphasized
his antagonistic relationship
to the political establishment
in the Queens
Democratic party.
He said that in community
board appointments
and the allocation of
funding in the borough,
decisions need to be made
on conversations with the
community rather than
political favors or relationships.
Miranda claimed that
if the borough president’s
office made an effort to be
more transparent and accountable,
it would help
diversify the community
board appointments.
In addition to agreeing
that the community
boards were not sufficiently
diverse, Constantinides
said that Katz had
missed the opportunity to
build a holistic 20-century
transportation system
and build satellite offices
in remote neighborhoods
– two pillars of his campaign
platform.
Hyndman used her
time to frame herself as
an advocate of small businesses.
She said that the borough
president needs to
play a central role making
sure that redevelopment
of LaGuardia and
JFK includes benefits to
small and minority-woman
owned businesses.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by e-mail at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com
or by phone at (718) 260-
2507.
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